Following the EU Commission’s recent ruling to ban funding for all clean energy projects using solar inverters from ‘high-risk’ states, specifically targeting China which supplies 70-80% of the EU solar market, on 2 August the US government announced an immediate and absolute ban on foreign solar inverters deemed to be a risk to national and/or cyber security. Also, with China the focus.
The US Federal Communications Commission Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has added foreign-produced power inverters to its Covered List, executing an immediate ban on equipment authorisations for unapproved foreign models, triggering an immediate and absolute ban on new equipment sales in the USA.
This ruling, along with the EU Commission’s funding ban, is expected to significantly disrupt the solar industry which has become heavily reliant on Chinese solar components and equipment. This has led to serious concerns in Europe and the US about grid security and energy dependency, particularly as solar inverters allow the manufacturers to remotely control solar systems. There are concerns in the USA about how quickly it can build the solar, wind and battery projects it requires, and how the country can balance the growth in clean energy with grid security.
The ban affects solar or battery storage project relying on an inverter made outside the United States that has not already received an official FCC ID, because it cannot legally be turned on. And there is no phase-in period, so the regulatory pipeline is also frozen. Developers must therefore halt active procurements and find new hardware vendors. The ban applies to new inverter models, but not to all foreign–made components
The FCC said the move followed a determination by a White House-convened Executive Branch interagency body that foreign-made inverters “pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons.”
The agency stated that the restriction is aimed at new inverter models going forward, not models that already have approval. Consumers can continue to use devices they already own, and retailers can continue selling models that have already been authorised.
